Gregory J. Wilcox: Housing affordability all over the map and falling for everybody

Rising prices mean falling affordability for Southern California homes. This home was seen for sale in the 3200 block of Hacienda Drive in Duarte on Aug. 13, 2014. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda/San Gabriel Valley Tribune)

Los Angeles County and the state look a lot like the each other and nothing like the nation.

San Bernardino County looks a lot like the nation and nothing like Los Angeles County and the state.

But all of them saw affordability fall in the second quarter.

It’s financial gravity at work. As prices rise, and they have been, affordability falls, and both Los Angeles County and the state overall are higher priced markets than San Bernardino and the nation overall.

Affordability indexes are simply based on the percentage of households that can afford a median priced home in their community.

In Los Angeles County affordability fell from 31 percent in the first quarter to 30 percent in the second quarter.

In San Bernardino County affordability fell a little harder. It declined from 61 percent in the first quarter to 58 percent in the second quarter.

Statewide affordability fell from 33 percent in the first quarter to 30 percent in second quarter.

By comparison, the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index showed that nationwide affordability declined from 65.6 percent in the first quarter dipped to 62.6 percent in the second quarter.

“All five least affordable small housing markets were in California,” the association said in an email.

And those markets were all in Central and Northern California.

Of course interest rates impact affordability and they fell again this week. Rates have been yo-yoing up and down all summer.

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Last week the rate on a 30-year fixed-mortgage, a popular choice for home purchases, averaged 4.12 percent nationwide for the week ending Aug. 14. That was down from 4.14 percent a week earlier and 4.4 percent a year ago, the survey noted.

The rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage fell from 3.27 percent to 3.24 percent last week. A year ago it was at 3.44 percent.

However, rates vary across the country and they were slightly better in the West.

Here the rate on a 30-year loan averaged 4.09 percent and on the 15-year loan it averaged 3.19 percent.